Consult | Collaborate | Create
A new norm- Yes, it’s a phrase that divides the audience. Some of us are weary of the over used phrases (unprecedented, anyone?). Others are excited at the prospect of real change. In education I don’t think we really want
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My children went back to school seven weeks ago. This blog post sat in a corner of my brain, waiting for when I had caught up on workload. That is unlikely to actually happen, and the raw edges of the
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At the start of the pandemic, the Media Development team produced the Video Survival Guide to help staff get the basics right for producing videos from home. Continuing the University’s strategy to enhance the quality of our online offering, the Digital Learning team are now setting up a broader Film School for later in 2021.
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On February 4th and 5th, Matt Deeprose and I took part in UDLHE Digicon. This was an online conference about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Higher Education. It was our first time attending this event. The conference was wholly
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About the project With online education still very much a hot topic, the Media team have been busy producing several teaching resources for Biological Sciences in the run up to the Christmas holidays. To date, we have produced 6 practical
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Decorate our Christmas Tree and read some useful tips on resources that will help you out with the educational technology.
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I recently attended AbilityNet’s TechShare Pro 2020 conference. In this post, I’m going to share a top tip I learned from Microsoft. When creating an email in Outlook 365 you can check for any accessibility issues. Checking Email Accessibility Once
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Blackboard tests are a hot topic at the moment. On the Digital Learning Connect Teams Area we recently received a question from Dr Gabriel Weymouth: I’m positive this is clearly documented somewhere, but I can’t find it. How do you
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For recorded lectures and presentations, some colleagues prefer to create narrated PowerPoint files. You can include your webcam video in these types of recordings, this helps students to see you and your passion for your subject and helps to build
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Have you experienced the following scenario? You teach a class online and ask a question at the cohort, a few seconds have passed, and no answer. This awkwardness makes you continue with the answers. So what can you do not
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The ability to hide your background in Blackboard Collaborate is one of the most requested features on the Blackboard Community site. In addition, it has been requested many times by colleagues at the University of Southampton. This post will teach
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On the CHEP Community Team Dr Poshak Gandhi asked some questions about peer assessment: “My module has 170 students, split into 4 groups of about 42 students each. I want to create an assignment for peer assessment, with each group
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“As a technologist, I see how Artificial Intelligence [AI] and the fourth industrial revolution will impact every aspect of people’s lives.” – Fei-Fei Li , Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University AI ‘s main goal is to automate routine
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Forums are more essential than you would think and they can help your students to engage with the courses. Forums are very useful and play a key role in the online classroom, helping the students connect with each other, and
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Earlier this month, I was given access to an Articulate 360 license which included a whole load of goodies developed by Articulate; Storyline 360, Studio 360, Replay 360 and Peek 360, Review 360 and Rise 360. From this bundle, I
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Today, (14th of July) for the first time in over four months, my colleague Sofy Bazzini and I had a real video shoot, in a real location, with real people and real cameras… and it was… odd! This may sound
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Captain’s Log: June 2020 I find myself in a strange world. The inhabitants are sentient yet look like cartoons. They appear to be talking to me in my own language, asking me questions about my latest work in innovation. No,
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The Blackboard European Teaching and Learning Conference was online this year. 871 people attended from 276 educational institutions in 32 countries. Being online allowed attendees from further afield to attend such as the US, Singapore, and Lebanon. The conference ran across 3 weeks
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The iSolutions restructure has led to a few changes for Digital Learning. On the 1st of June, the new structure took effect. Yes, we did keep the name this time (!) and we are very pleased about it. The team
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As the saying goes “The Show must go on” …. And throughout this COVID19 pandemic, this saying very much reflects on the work of our academic staff who are doing a sterling job in ensuring that teaching continues, albeit more
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Like all current gatherings, the University of Kent and Kent County Council hosted this year’s Digital Accessibility Conference virtually. It ran from 9th to 11th June. In its second year, the conference aims to inform Public Sector organisations about digital
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This year, Blackboard’s Teaching and Learning Conference was held online, featuring a range of topical discussions. Further details of the programme can be found here: TLC Europe. Our colleague Matthew Deeprose contributed two well-received presentations, firstly explaining how custom changes
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During this lockdown period, our learning designer colleagues from the Digital Learning team have been extremely busy delivering three webinars a week on using university supported tools for online learning. We, at the media team have also been looking at
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The past couple of weeks have thrown up huge changes and challenges to the way we work, including the introduction of new technology and new ways of thinking about how we do things. New tech always comes with risks and
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The recent global health crisis has brought new ways of teaching to enable our students to progress with their studies. But how are you going to move from classroom to virtual teaching seamlessly? Here are six tips to help you
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At the point we launched this year’s search for examples of excellent use of virtual learning environments, we didn’t know we’d all be moving in! With learning shifted to virtual spaces, it’s useful to reflect on what this year’s nominations
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So, you have your video. What next? Chances are you probably want to add it to a course page or VLE. Currently, Blackboard isn’t the best at hosting video directly. You might get away with adding a short video, but
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So, you’re moving your teaching online; have you thought about what images you will be using? You might be looking for a range of pictures to break up a lot of text in your Blackboard course, or you might need
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Why 3D models? 3D models are useful in a multitude of disciplines: archaeology, architecture, anatomy, biology, geology, engineering and so on. This post will show you how to quickly embed models from Sketchfab into your Blackboard course in 5 simple
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With the recent announcement of the temporary closure of the University due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Digital Learning team is now more focussed than ever on how we can support the delivery of effective online learning for both students
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